Monday, August 31, 2015

25 April (Leanne Pooley, New Zealand): a stunningly animated look at the landings at Gallipoli during the First World War.

The Danish Girl (Tom Hooper, United Kingdom): from director Tom Hooper (The King's Speech), this film based on David Ebershoff's novel stars Eddie Redmayne (The Theory of Everything) as a man who discovers new feelings and eventually becomes one of the first to undergo gender reassignment surgery. Also stars Alicia Vikander (Ex Machina).

Dheepan (Jacques Audiard, France): winner of the Palme d'Or at Cannes in 2015, the latest from Jacques Audiard (I previously saw his Rust and Bone at TIFF) follows a Tamil family that flees from Sri Lanka to France.

Endorphine (André Turpin, Canada): I've seen Turpin's work as a DoP on Incendies and Maelstrom. His latest directorial effort intertwines the stories of three women all named Simone.

The Final Girls (Todd Strauss-Schulson, USA): a kind of send-up and homage to horror films, with Taissa Farmiga as the daughter of a famous horror movie star who is transported with her friends into one of her mother's films.

Francophonia (Alexander Sokurov, Germany/France/The Netherlands): Sokurov's latest film that sounds reminiscent of one of his previous works, Russian Ark.

Hardcore (Ilya Naishuller, Russia/USA): shot from a first-person point-of-view, this film follows a resurrected cyborg super solider on a mission to rescue his wife from a psychotic supervillain.

High-Rise (Ben Wheatley, United Kingdom): based on J.G. Ballard's novel of the same name, with Tom Hiddleston as a new resident who must navigate the social politics and class structure of a monolithic apartment tower.

Lace Crater (Harrison Atkins, USA): a woman attends a house party in the country, ends up sleeping with a burlap-wrapped ghost, and strange things start happening to her body.

Mr. Right (Paco Cabezas, USA): Anna Kendrick meets Sam Rockwell and they fall for one another, only it turns out Rockwell is a hitman, and the body count starts to pile up. Saw Kendrick last year in The Last Five Years and Rockwell in Laggies.

Love (Gaspar Noé, France): probably will be the most interesting use of 3D I'll see at the festival this year.

Our Little Sister (Hirokazu Kore-eda, Japan): Kore-eda's latest to hit TIFF finds three sisters in a seaside town who learn their estranged father had another daughter who comes to live with her stepsisters are her father's death.

Schneider vs. Bax (Alex van Warmerdam, Netherlands/Belgium): a black comedy about a hitman trying to kill novelist, although the novelist may be more than he seems.

Veteran (Ryoo Seung-wan, South Korea): Ryoo's latest (I've previously seen his The Berlin File) follows a maverick detective that takes on a huge corporation that flaunts the law.

Where to Invade Next (Michael Moore, USA): Moore's latest film asks the question about what would happen if the US were better at invading other countries, and launches off from there.

Yakuza Apocalypse (Takashi Miike, Japan): a mish-mash of everything from monsters to gangsters and everything in between.

Youth (Paolo Sorrentino, Italy/France/United Kingdom/Switzerland): Sorrentino's follow up to The Great Beauty finds Michael Caine and Harvey Keitel reflecting on life and the world while relaxing at a spa in the Swiss Alps.

Saturday, August 29, 2015

This post is a placeholder for people to add comments for any films that they notice as sold out (i.e. off sale) when completing the online ticketing process for My Choice packages for TIFF 2015. Feel free to post a comment for anything you see as sold out when you log in to make your picks to help others out.Note that films may come off sale if people release them before checking out because they changed their mind or failed to complete the check out process. Also, even though a screening sold out during the My Choice selection process, it may become available again when individual tickets go on sale.

Tuesday, August 25, 2015

If you pre-ordered the Programme Book, you should have gotten it with a bag (while supplies last). I'm going to stop calling it a gift bag as it's really more a bag of sponsor advertising. :-) This year's bag included:

a Timberland/TIFF branded reusable bag

the TIFF Programme Book

the TIFF Official Film Schedule

500 ml O.N.E. coconut water

two $50 off coupons for airbnb

a book of Ciroc cocktail drink recipes

a visitor guide for the Toronto entertainment district

a Birks special offer of a pendant with purchase

a $15 off coupon for Express and Express Men

a Rimowa luggage entry for a draw for tickets to the closing night gala

a flyer about the tiff.net/ignite donation campaign to help aspiring filmmakers

a TIFF membership flyer

a Timberland flyer

a coupon for the Windsor Arms spa

a flyer for Pizza Nova

coupons for Cineplex theatres

I think there may also have been a can of pop in some bags, but not in mine

Monday, August 24, 2015

TIFF is sending e-mails today to people that purchased a My Choice ticket package. This e-mail lets you know when you can log into the ticketing website to select your films. You don't have to log in right at your start time; you have from the start time to September 4 at 7:00 PM EST to make your selections, although it's to your advantage to select as soon as possible. I got a good time this year, 11:00 AM on the 31st.

If you purchased multiple packages, you will have to log in separately for each one and make the selections independently.

It is important to note that once you log in, you need to make all your selections at once. You cannot pick some, log out, then log back in at a later date.

Don't panic if you haven't received your e-mail yet; it can take a while for TIFF to send them all out. Also, double-check your spam folder in case it ended up there. If you haven't received it after today, contact the festival directly to check on your time (check the TIFF website for the Customer Relations e-mail address or phone numbers).